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My wife and I recently took a month long trip to Europe... and tried with all our might to get to the west coast of Italy to meet some some of you face to face, but couldn't make it happen with our previous arrangements. Anyway, here are some photos from the trip if you're at all curious!

An afternoon in Rome:

Chianti region/Italian country side

Cinque Terre (possibly cliche views that everyone has seen, but it was really wonderful!)

You're quite welcome! Photography is one of my lessor known hobbies, and having learned my techniques at the end of the film era (I think it's safe to say the world has effectively moved on from film with the exception of a few die hards) the black and white tend to be the ones I appreciate the most as well. Regardless, I'm glad you enjoy the photos.

We flew from the states (a given I think...). Our main source of travel when in Europe was train and foot. Most of our time in the Chianti region of Italy was on foot... at Greve and the surrounding countryside.

All photos are from the ground (although we found ourselves standing at very high points! The Aiguille du Midi is a stunning cable car ride that leaves you perched at the top of the French Alps with views of Mont Blanc and surrounding mountains).

I've been to some of those places and you have really achieved great pictures.

Are those HDR effects post production by you or does your camera do the HDR already?I sometimes dislike HDR but some of your pictures are excellent examples of great use of it. For example in the Chamonix pictures, especially the B&W. Also in the bridge and St Paul's.

When discussing High Dynamic Range Photography, the common method is to shoot a scene with multiple exposures in order to capture detail in high light and shadow area... then in post production layer the photos and edit to meet the artist's perception or desired outcome.

All of the photos I've posted here originate from a single exposure. That being said, today's digital cameras do have higher dynamic range than earlier digital models.

My post production routine consists of balancing exposure based on a histogram, making mild bumps in contrast and saturation, and making the occasional black and white version of a photo. The majority of the color photos that I have posted have very minimal editing from the original exposure. I make my best attempts to capture scenes that utilize the soft light of morning and evening (rather than mid day). Probably my favorite photo here is the black and white mountain scene (taken in Chamonix).

Here is the color version, straight from the camera (although converted to JPEG in Aperture in order to upload to Picasaweb where I host the photos I use here on the forum). I post it only to demonstrate why I chose that one to convert to black and white... it has a lots of compositional value, but very little interest in terms of the colors in the scene. When that is the case, I give it a shot as a black and white.

We flew from the states (a given I think...). Our main source of travel when in Europe was train and foot. Most of our time in the Chianti region of Italy was on foot... at Greve and the surrounding countryside.

All photos are from the ground (although we found ourselves standing at very high points! The Aiguille du Midi is a stunning cable car ride that leaves you perched at the top of the French Alps with views of Mont Blanc and surrounding mountains).

Ha indeed! Sadly, I did not get a chance to fly a kite while I was there. I had packed a prism 4d, but it was unfortunately left (inadvertently) at the first apartment we stayed at in Rome. The gentleman who rented the apartment to us did ship it back to me (which I would have told him to keep based on the cost of shipping from Italy, but he sent it without notifying me). So, I have a prism 4d that has traveled to Italy, but never flown there!

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